Well, unless you’re talking about dressing up a six-month old baby in a bumblebee costume for Halloween, then they are flipping adorable.

What I’m talking about is the real bumblebee. You know the one that’s always buzzzzzzzzzz-ing around your food that you swat at to only have it be more determined to hover over your food. I swear bees have a human annoyance radar that goes off every time we eat outside. Because within minutes of sitting down, SWIPE! the bee swatting begins.

When my friends over at Cascadian Farm’s reached out to me to talk about the bumblebee, I realized I was swatting at a very important insect of Mother Nature. Okay, if you’ve been stung by a bee and hate bees in general just hear me out for a couple of seconds.

Did you know that bees are responsible for one in every three bites of food we consume? GASP! I know. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t realize how important bumblebees are to our food source. That’s why Cascadian Farm, along with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the University of Minnesota Bee lab have launched their ‘Bee Friendlier’ program – to increase awareness and demonstrate some simple steps you can take to help bees keep on buzzzzzing along.

One of the steps to help improve the bee population is by planting wildflowers. I didn’t know this, but fall is the best time to plant wildflowers. That’s right! You can scatter seeds around the lawn and have nutritious, gorgeous habitats for the bees ready by spring. If only building a house was that easy? The great folks at Cascadian Farm folks took it one step further and dropped gumball-size pellets (a combination of wildflower seeds, clay, and compost) over a field in California to create a haven for bees. Talk about some serious pollinating, my friends.

Another way you can spread awareness, is to stop by the Bee Booth at Bee-Friendlier.com and make a custom “SelfBee”. Get it? Share your “SelfBee” through social media channels and you’ll receive a code where you can enter an online donation to help bee-friendly causes.

See, aren’t bees da bomb?

For instance, without these little fellows, we couldn’t have today’s apple-ginger pancakes with apple crisp & maple syrup recipe. Cascadian Farm has a whole line of products like veggies, granola bars, and cereals that bees help to process. Well, when I saw the apple crisp granola I knew exactly what to make. Just add a little fresh apple and gingersnap cookie (an autumn favorite) to any pancake batter, top it with the apple crisp granola smothered in maple syrup, and you have one buzz-worthy breakfast.

But that’s not all! The kind folks over at Cascadian Farm are giving away a “Bee-Friendelier” kit to one lucky reader! All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me, what’s your favorite flower?

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!! Congrats to entry #11, Rachel!!

Giveaway details:One lucky U.S. resident will receive – Cascadian Farm Buzz Crunch Honey Almond Cereal, Cascadian Farm Protein Granola (either Apple Crisp or Dark Chocolate), Seedless (either a pack of 50 or 5 9-packs) specific to the blogger’s region, Bee finger puppets, Save the Bees tea towel, and Save the Bees art print. This giveaway will run from Wedensday October 29th to Sunday November 2nd at 9pm MST. One winner will be chosen and notified via email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond.***

Directions:

Preheat a skillet to medium heat. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, egg, salt, sugar, butter, apple, and crushed gingersnaps. Once the batter is combined, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet. Brown on both sides. Repeat process until all the batter has been used. To serve, stack the pancakes, garnish with Cascadian Apple Crisp granola, and maple syrup!

I want these for lunch! Love the sounds of them! 🙂

These pancakes look incredible.

I love honey and therefore love bees. Wish it was possible to have a hive at my house but I don’t think the neighbors would appreciate it. Breakfast for dinner just happens to be one of my favorite meals and pancakes are number 1. I’ll definitely give your cakes a try. My favorite flower would have to be Hibiscus.

I am a sucker for tulips… they are absolutely beautiful!

Peonies! These pancakes look amazing 🙂

I’m the worst when it comes to bees. Love the honey and all the good they do for the planet, but they scare my pants off. I have a major bee phobia. These hotcakes are the bees knees (not even sorry for the pun).

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